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Sequoia Capital Raises Bulk of $8 Billion Venture Fund

Sequoia Capital Raises Bulk of $8 Billion Venture Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Sequoia Capital has raised more than $6 billion toward what is already the biggest U.S. venture capital fund, with plans for more, said a person familiar with the matter.

The Silicon Valley venture firm is targeting $8 billion for the new global growth fund, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the fundraising effort hasn’t completed. Financial commitments to Sequoia Global Growth III have come largely from new investors to the firm. Sequoia Capital plans to tap existing investors for about $2 billion more.

Sequoia Capital declined to comment. The fundraising development was reported earlier Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.

The size of top venture funds has exploded in recent years, in part to compete with SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, announced in 2016 with a $100 billion target. SoftBank has written massive checks to some of the world’s most prominent startups, including India’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt and America’s Uber Technologies Inc.

Sequoia Capital, founded in 1972, made early investments in some of the most successful technology companies, from Apple Inc. to Airbnb Inc. As it amasses much larger amounts of money, Sequoia Capital plans to charge a 1 percent annual management fee, rather than the 2 percent traditionally charged by venture firms, which has helped attract backers, said the person familiar with the matter.

To contact the author of this story: Sarah McBride in San Francisco at smcbride24@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Robin Ajello

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